S60 2004 Car stalls with no warning

Pmongii · Post by **Pmongii** » 04 Jun 2016, 07:14

S60 2004 2.4l non-turbo stalling- Check Engine has been going on and off with no codes. Would drive and light would just come on, than 2 days later it goes off. I have tried to have to codes pulled while the light was on at dealer and no codes. I noticed that it would come on after filling with fuel, but that didn't make sense since it wouldn't do it all the time at filling just once in a while. Had car checked out by mechanic (not Volvo mech) who cleaned the TB and MAF and checked all my plugs and coil packs. Found nothing, so he reset the Check engine light and gave it back. Just so happened I left for vacation after getting car back so it sat for 14 days, when I park the car in garage for vacation the car was driving great after he reset. I was thinking this is how the car should drive, smooth and purred like a kitten and a reset did it. No such luck. Drove to work it was great, than check engine light came on and it just kept stalling. And had hard time getting it started, scared me big time as I was pulling out of a store drive way and BAM nothing no dash lights no power no nothing, right in the middle of the street. It took me about six try's to final get it to stay started. I did nothing just turning the key and praying it would stay started. Got to work turn off car and hoped it would start after sitting for awhile. Well it did start and drove for about 10 minutes when it stalled, nothing dead. Again just trying to start car and after a few try's It would start and raced home before stalling again. It stalled five times in a 11 mile radius. Now car is sitting and afraid to drive. I have searched the web in hopes to get a clue as to what is wrong. Found two things. Fuel Pressure sensor or CEM, can anyone tell me what you think it might be and things to try as I can not afford to go have it checked by Volvo or anybody else. Thank you.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 04 Jun 2016, 07:31

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but something similar happened to me last year- it was on my S70 so different car. I did some work on my car and it was running great....where I was in town, there is a no-name gas station with cheap gas...I needed gas so I filled up...then about 1/2 a mile down the road, I got some stumbling and a stall... got it running again and got it home... similar issues continued- on again...off again. The only thing I could figure out is I bought some bad gas and that was after a considerable amount of tinkering (just like you).... called the gas station- of course they denied any wrong doing. I seriously thought it was bad gas so I called the State Inspector's office. They sent a crew down the next day and ran a sample of the gas from this station. It turned out, that they had like 15% water in their gas and the octane rating was off as well (premium wasn't premium). I got my money back on the bad gas but that was it (certainly didn't pay for my time or the additive I added to my tank to try to dry out the gas)... I drained what I could out of the gas tank through the schrader valve on the fuel rail into some containers and have been using that in my cheap lawn mower...put gas stabilizer in the tank when all this happened- it helped some... after the next fill up with good gas, my problems were finally all gone!! So, to make this long story short, where did you buy gas last? Could it be bad gas? They are starting to mix gas strangely at some stations with summer coming on and if it's been raining a lot in your area, that might be another reason to suspect something like this.

Of course it could be a vacuum leak...unmetered air into the system. Do you have a turbo car? the 2.4l does't really tell me although maybe it should. A MAF sensor could also be going bad- easy to clean at least- just spray with MAF cleaner and let it dry- don't touch the sensor... Of course at MAF would usualy set a code. You said the CEL came on but no code? That's very odd...

Pmongii · Post by **Pmongii** » 07 Jun 2016, 19:31

I never thought about having bad gas. I am in the process of changing the Fuel pressure sensor since all thread leads me to believing its the sensor. Bought a FPS on line and expecting it on Friday, so for now just waiting.
It's a non-turbo forgot to mention that. I was also thinking its the Evap canister or something like that. I need to do research on it. since it seems to happen with a full tank. I will consider draining the fuel just for good measure. Thanks for the input.

Post by **June** » 07 Jun 2016, 20:00

Did I read that when it stalled there was no power?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 07 Jun 2016, 20:12

June wrote:Did I read that when it stalled there was no power?

Yeah, I just re-read and saw that too...that's a strange one- may not be bad gas... Hmmmm.
But unrelated things have been known to happen in these cars all the time- they have happened to me numerous times and when they do, I just scratch my head.

Post by **oragex** » 08 Jun 2016, 05:28

How many miles on the car?

Kind of the issue better approach it with patience and check item by item - not easy when the car is needed for commuting. Many Volvo dealers will replace parts with joy without any warranty of fixing the issue so that's the least option.

Try not to crank for too long when it doesn't start, the starter is not designed to turn for more than 5-10 seconds at a time, it heats up and can burn.

Do you hear the fuel pump priming when turning the key in position II without firing up the engine? It makes a whirling noise in the back of the car (can be heard from outside)

You say something interesting: the last time when the car stalled, there were no more electrics even with the key in position II? No cabin/dash lights, no radio, etc? If so, I would look first into power i.e. alternator and battery (in this order). Remove the serpentine belt, and check all the pulleys on the belt turn easily. For the alternator pulley, also check the clutch (look up on Youtube). Check the power cables to the alternator for any cracks. Then with the belt back on, measure the alternator voltage, if it checks fine, measure the battery voltage. When the alternator goes bad, it ruins the battery so don't replace a battery until you know the alternator gives good voltage.

The next thing I would check is the infamous ECM modules electrical connection issue Here is a thread. However, this issue will often times give warning messages on the instrument panel.
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 57#p368657

I don't think it's the CEM (not the same thing as ECM), as the CEM issue started with 2005 models.

Post by **June** » 08 Jun 2016, 19:50

I had a strange event with my 2004 S80 that sounded simular. Last month my car became hard to start first time in the morning only. Long cranking several times if I did not crank it longer than normal on the first start. I took it into my dealer thinking it needed a tune up. The car died right in the mechanics stall. They replaced the battery and when I went to drive away the car stalled for the first time ever. It restarted and then died completely in the service drive. No power to anything at all. They put a jumping box on the battery in the trunk and nothing. The car started several minutes later without the box and they took it away. It turned out to be a loose connection where the red cap over battery wires under the hood come together. My mechanic said he had ran into this problem before and the car will not run if any break of contact with the battery occurs. (engine stalled as a result of the loose contact) it just seemed strange to me that a loose cable can stop a running engine, but it did several times. Luckily for me right at the dealer. Hope this helps, June oh,my car had 112K last month

Pmongii · Post by **Pmongii** » 09 Jun 2016, 14:28

My car has 101000 miles on it. I Replaced the Fuel pressure sensor and car ran fine for about 15 minutes. No stalling no nothing. Than...message of Try to slow down or shift up. Engine light blinking so I stopped and let it sit. Luckily I wasn't to far from mu house that I restarted and got home. Now from what I have read it states that that message pertains to the Coil packs. I started the car and took disconnected each pack one by one. Each wire taken off the car would run bad, than put back on it would run good. Reading the comments from June I'm inclined to check the terminals on the battery. Won't hurt any and maybe I might find something. I'm surprised also that the car would completely shut down due to a loose wire. But I will check and let you know what I find.

Pmongii · Post by **Pmongii** » 09 Jun 2016, 14:32

Oragex, Thank you for some ideas, also about not cracking the starter for more than 5-10 seconds I didn't know that. I would keep cracking until it started.

Pmongii · Post by **Pmongii** » 09 Jun 2016, 15:53

Update: checked all wires to battery all in good shape, nothing loose or frayed. When I turn on the car YES I hear the fuel pump priming when turning the key in position II. Just got back from taking the car for a ride. Check engine light is still on but ran fine. No more Try to slow down or shift up message.

So my next guess would be is the CEM. Reading threads about the CEM it doesn't seem to me that it would be that, simply because I'm not getting a lot of unusual things happening, just CE light coming on. I think the stalling was the FPS because on my ride around it didn't stall or act like it wanted to stall.
I do have an extra CEM I purchased it off of ebay thinking it was the CEM when I first started out my quest to fix my car.
Still no codes for check engine light, that doesn't surprise me.
Will venture out tomorrow with the car and see what happens. I will update tomorrow on how it ran and if anything happens.

Thanks to everyone for all input.